The Wildest Thing About Former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg's Lawsuit Against The US Governmenthttp://www.businessinsider.com/aig-launched-risky-bets-under-greenberg-2013-1/comments
en-usWed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 -0500Fri, 09 Dec 2016 13:20:48 -0500Joshua Berlingerhttp://www.businessinsider.com/c/50ed9ad26bb3f7034b000008goodideaWed, 09 Jan 2013 11:29:06 -0500http://www.businessinsider.com/c/50ed9ad26bb3f7034b000008
Joseph Cassano, the former head of the AIG derivatives unit, would viciously attack anyone that suggested AIG shouldn't insure this toxic waste, because that took away his $400M bonuses.
Joseph Cassano should be in jail, or at the very least AIG should have clawed-back those hundreds of $millions in bonuses that Cassano got, to the detriment of AIG.http://www.businessinsider.com/c/50ed8b73eab8eacc48000002T-BoneWed, 09 Jan 2013 10:23:31 -0500http://www.businessinsider.com/c/50ed8b73eab8eacc48000002
In Hank's mind AIG FP never would have gone bust if Elliot Spitzer hadn't forced him out in 2005. I'm not sure that's true, but I do think the company would have been much much better prepared, and might have managed to offload more of the risk and negotiate settlements with counterparties (e.g. Goldman) directly on more favorable terms than what the government imposed.
When Spitzer forced Greenberg out with press conferences alleging fraud--while failing to follow through with any criminal charges and having the civil suits he filed either dropped or put on life support without a single conviction--Martin Sullivan became CEO. He was a career insurance operations guy who had great relationships with the insurance sales guys, but he didn't understand AIG FP at all. He may have been Hank's choice as a successor, but I think Hank had in mind a more divided empire. He didn't intend for Martin Sullivan to be left to his own devices with regard to enterprise risk and the company's complex financial businesses.http://www.businessinsider.com/c/50ed0a08ecad04174900000esdfdsfdsfsWed, 09 Jan 2013 01:11:20 -0500http://www.businessinsider.com/c/50ed0a08ecad04174900000e
He created the unit but he says that the risk profile changed dramatically after he left under the new CEO. Also he said that the problem was that the credit rating downgrade triggered the requirement to put up cash collateral on the essentially credit insurance they sold but if he was in charge he would have told the banks who took out the insurance to not worry about it since what they insured was very safe and in fact there ended up being very little losses on ithttp://www.businessinsider.com/c/50ec8b51eab8eab709000001BlackBoxHaloTue, 08 Jan 2013 16:10:41 -0500http://www.businessinsider.com/c/50ec8b51eab8eab709000001
Why don't we give H. Greenberg one of those freshly printed Trillion coins?
Editorial team at B.I. should run with this story.http://www.businessinsider.com/c/50ec819b6bb3f71d39000001Buster BunnsTue, 08 Jan 2013 15:29:15 -0500http://www.businessinsider.com/c/50ec819b6bb3f71d39000001
Pure chutzpah! This old coot should be in jail along with most of hi cronies.